


The Boy

by KaiMikoledesMan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stranger Things (TV 2016), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29206143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaiMikoledesMan/pseuds/KaiMikoledesMan
Summary: Kai learns more about the issues happening within the timeline.
Kudos: 2





	The Boy

"Have a good day!" the lady at the bodega said to Kai as he was walking out.

"You too," he said, holding his back of snacks and juice in one hand and his wallet in the other. As he pushed the bodega door open to go back to the sidewalk with his back, he quickly stuffed his wallet into his front pocket and began walking towards the subway entrance to go back to his flat.

After he jogged down the stairs and swiped his subway pass, he walked to his stop and waited for the next train. There were a few people around him, nothing out of place for mid-day for his stop. Kai took out his phone and checked his social media while he waited.

Twitter was uneventful, just the usual people he followed posting about their day or complaining about the mayor. Kai hardly posted anyway, but it was fun to see what the people of the city posted every now and then. After a few minutes, he heard the train coming from the tunnel, and he put his phone up to prepare to board.

As the train rounded the corner, the lights on the front began to flicker. Kai didn't think much of it, because the trains were always needing work done to them, but he did take notice of it. _Damn trains_ , he thought. _This city doesn't take care of its own transportation system enough_.

As the train slowed to the platform, Kai stepped closer to the edge and waited for the doors to open. As they squeaked open, he stepped inside and quickly found a seat.

Kai opened up his bag of chips that he had bought and began munching on them, too hungry to wait until he was home. The other people began to file in after him, minding their own business. As he was chewing, he saw the lights inside the cabin begin to flicker.

Kai froze. The rest of the people in the subway car looked around, confused, with worried faces. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. Looking around, he didn't see anything out of place, and after the initial flickering, the lights didn't flicker again. There was no announcement from the conductor, so he assumed that everything was fine. The people in the car went back to their usual mannerisms, sat down, and no longer seemed worried. Kai shook his head and sighed.

He knew something wasn't right.

Kai slowly reached his hand to his belt, where his sling ring was hidden, and kept it there just in case he needed it - as if he was brave enough to use it in public in front of the people in the car with him.

The rest of the ride was mostly uneventful, and Kai eventually relaxed. Before he knew it, he was at the door of his flat, unlocking it to walk in.

As Kai opened the door, he realized his cats weren't waiting at the door to greet him. He slowly stepped inside, looking around all sight-lines, just to make sure he was alone. Once he realized his cats were simply laying on his bed, he felt his shoulders relax. Kai put the juice in his tiny fridge and the rest of the snacks away, but saved the opened bag of chips to munch on. He walked to his bed to sit down and opened the bag of chips up again to continue eating.

_SNAP!_

"SHIT!!!"

Kai instinctively turned around to where the source of the noise was, realizing his bag of chips was now scattered around the room. In front of him was a young boy in what looked like a private-school uniform, all in navy-blue.

"My goodness, for a fellow time-traveler, you look _terrified!_ " the boy said, laughing.

Kai looked at the boy for a few more moments, blinking quickly, making sure what he was seeing was real.

"Kid, I don't know where you came from, but you're in the wrong flat."

The boy shook his head with an incredibly smug look. "No, no, I'm definitely in the right place. Kai Mikoledes, am I right?"

"How.... how the fuck do you know my name?" Kai said softly, slowly reaching towards his belt.

"Ah... I wouldn't do that if I were you," the boy said.

"Listen, I don't know who you are, and I don't know how you got in here, but you need to-"

Suddenly, the boy had teleported to the other side of Kai's flat. "I can do special tricks too, you know! But it does get old after a while."

Kai quickly reached for his belt for his sling ring, but before he could even unlatch it from the loop, the boy had teleported next to him and grabbed it before Kai realized what had happened.

"Hey!" he said. "Give that back, that's mine! It's very dangerous to wield if you don't know what you're doing-"

"Oh, I'm sorry," the boy said to Kai, cutting him off. "Do you need this to do your magic tricks?"

Kai ran after him to try and grab it, but the boy kept teleporting around the room ahead of him. "Stop that!" Kai yelled. He didn't feel comfortable attacking someone so young.

"Not until you talk to me," the boy responded.

Kai stopped in his tracks. "Okay," he said, letting out a huge sigh, "who the FUCK are you?"

The boy smiled with a somewhat satisfied grin. "Number Five," he said.

Kai furrowed his brow. "...that's it?" he said, "Just.... Number Five?"

"Let's skip the pleasantries and get to business, yeah?" Five said. "Names aren't really _that_ important. What's important is that I need your help."

Kai chuckled sarcastically. "You... need my help? Aren't you supposed to be in school or something?"

Number Five's face went from satisfied to annoyed. "I'm older than you, you know," he said. "Time does weird things to your physical body, you of all people should know that."

Kai raised a single eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm just still stuck on the fact that there's a... a young-looking boy in my flat, who I have never seen before, asking for my help and acting like he knows everything about me." Number Five rolled his eyes as Kai kept talking. "How... how did you even find me? I've made sure to program all my shit to be 100% untraceable, and since 2012 I have been careful about who I show my... my abilities to. Who are you to come in here and ask for my help as if you know what you're dealing with?!"

Five eyed the sling ring in his hand as if he wasn't even paying attention to a word Kai said. "You're worried about the wrong things," he said. "Haven't you noticed anything... particularly out of place recently?"

"What do you mean?" Kai responded.

"Well, I have some... siblings, if you will, who have happened upon the wrong timeline. You know how multiverses are supposed to touch but never interact? Well... we kind of messed up and we can't get back home now."

Kai walked towards Five and looked directly into his eyes. "Not... my... problem..." he said, forcefully.

The boy walked towards Kai and put his head uncomfortably close to Kai's face. "It's going to be your problem when the apocalypse happens," Five said.

Kai took his pointer finger and pushed it on Five's forehead to make him back up, laughing in disbelief. "The apocalypse, yeah right. Never heard that one before," Kai said sarcastically.

"But you do know Jim Hopper, correct?" the boy said.

Kai stood there for a few seconds in silent disbelief, staring blankly at Five. How did he know about Chief Jim Hopper?

The boy turned away, shaking his head, and began walking slowly away from Kai as he said, "Have you ever heard of the Umbrella Academy?"

"The... fucking what?"

Five exhaled sharply and sighed before continuing. "The Umbrella Academy was founded by our father, Reginald Hargreaves, with the intention to raise my siblings and I as superheroes. If he was still alive, in our timeline, you two would probably get along very well."

Kai shook his head. "Yeah, I'm not following you."

Five ignored Kai's comment and continued. "My siblings and I were all born on the same day... October 1, 1989, under very peculiar circumstances. There were 43 of us, but he only adopted seven. All of us have abilities, each different and unique. He... kept warning us about the apocalypse and how we were going to save the world, but we never believed him."

"Okay..." Kai said, eyeing his sling ring which was still in Five's hand. "So how do you know Hopp-"

Number Five cut him off before he could finish. "As it turns out, one of our siblings ended up causing the apocalypse in our original timeline, but I helped them get back to-"

"Bullshit," Kai said.

Five stopped pacing and turned towards Kai with an offended look on his face. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Kai said. "Fucking bullshit."

"Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ," Five said.

Kai froze completely, feeling every part of his body tense up with disbelief. "You... you know Ancient Greek?" he said shakily, so soft it was almost a whisper.

"Do I have your attention now?" Five asked. Kai nodded.

"Great. I'll give you your... magic device here back, if you promise to come with me," Five said.

"It's not magic, you idiot, it's-"

"I don't fucking care what it is, Kai, we have work to do!" Five yelled.

Kai grunted with frustration. "If the Sanctum knew that I was doing this..."

"That hasn't stopped you before now, has it?"

Kai looked away. Five was right. There had been instances, even if only a few, where Kai had used his sling ring without prior authorization from his superiors at the Sanctum Sanctorum.

"Fine," he said. "What do you need help with exactly?"

Number Five smiled and handed the sling ring back to Kai. "Pack your shit," the boy said. "Only the essentials."

"Okay," Kai replied, "but you still haven't told me what we're doing, or how you know Hopper."

"We're going to 1986," Five replied. "We're going to help out some... old friends first."


End file.
